Thursday, March 18, 2010

Alex Chilton, lead singer of the original power pop band, Big Star, passed away today. When I was really getting into music, around the end of of junior high and beginning of high school, all I listened to was 90's British trad rock (Travis, Embrace, early Coldplay), 90's American power pop (Weezer Ozma, Phantom Planet) and early indie rock (Death Cab and Barsuk friends). I loved the new, and couldn't understand why anyone thought oldies were "goodies." Then I fell upon Big Star, and they opened up the entire pre-90's soundscape for me. I still think some of their tunes belong to the catchiest songs ever written group. Their tender teenage love song "Thirteen" has been covered by the likes of Elliott Smith and Jeff Tweedy. And from then on, I went on to devour the Beatles, the Byrds, ELO.. Thanks, Alex. Wish you could've played in Austin this Saturday.